Carl Kasell, who also served as the news anchor on Morning Edition, was the show's official judge and scorekeeper until May 2014 (after this comic was published), when he retired and was replaced by Bill Kurtis.

In the 3rd row, first paper, Lakshmi Singh is NPR's national midday newscaster.

In the 3rd row, 3rd paper is a reference to a protest at UC Davis (on the campus of University of California, Davis) protests in early 2012 in which sitting, peaceful protesters were calmly pepper-sprayed in their faces by a police officer. That spawned an internet meme of epic proportions.

In the 4th row, 3rd paper is a reference to Granny Weatherwax of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels; Granny Weatherwax is a witch who carries a sign saying "I ATEN'T DED"(sic) when having out-of-body experiences.

In the 5th row, 2nd paper is a reference to another internet meme in where someone leaves out the verb in the sentence. The implication is that the verb is something bad, but which bad thing is left as an exercise to stew in the reader's mind. See the I Accidentally ___ meme for more information.

In the 5th row, 3rd paper is a reference to the Eldritch abomination Cthulhu, from "The Call of Cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft. He is one the Old Ones, the Elder Gods, and is awakened by his worshipers chanting, "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.") Hence the title, "Wait, Wait, Don't speak its name."

Two years later another New Years comic, 1311: 2014, took a similar look at what could happen in 2014, just as this does for 2012. Interesting enough the title of that comic (just the year it was looking at) is more related to the title of the next comic after this one, which is also a New Year comic, and the title is also just the number of the year: 998: 2012.

Discussion

The 5th Row, 3rd paper, "Wait Wait ... don't speak its name" may refer to the Lovecraftian Eldetr God Hastur, also known as "He Who is Not to be Named." Eldritch was a favorite Lovecraft word used extensively in the Cthulhu Mythos. 74.120.13.132 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)